Plumbing
Littleton CO
Opening your monthly utility statement to find that your water bill has inexplicably doubled or tripled is a stressful experience for any homeowner. If your family hasn't filled a swimming pool, installed a new sprinkler system, or hosted a house full of long-showering guests, that massive spike in water usage is a massive red flag.
In almost every case, an inexplicably high water bill means that thousands of gallons of water are actively escaping your plumbing system somewhere on your property. Ignoring the bill won't make the problem go away; in fact, the hidden leak is likely causing severe, invisible structural damage to your home at this very moment. At Plumbing Littleton CO, our Leak Detection & Repair specialists receive desperate calls every week from homeowners facing skyrocketing bills. In this comprehensive guide, we will walk you through the most common culprits behind high water bills and teach you how to track them down.
When homeowners ask us to investigate a high water bill, the very first thing we check is the bathrooms. A continuously running toilet is the most common cause of wasted water in a residential home. While a dripping faucet is obvious, a running toilet is often silent, wasting water straight down the sewer drain without leaving a single puddle on the floor.
A moderately running toilet can waste over 200 gallons of water a day, while a severe flapper leak can waste a staggering 6,000 gallons of water in a single month. Multiply that by the cost of water in Littleton, and you can easily see why your bill skyrocketed.
How to Test It: You can test your toilets for silent leaks using a simple dye test. Carefully remove the lid from your toilet tank. Squeeze five to ten drops of dark food coloring (or a specialized dye tablet) into the water inside the tank. Do not flush the toilet. Wait 20 to 30 minutes, and then look inside the toilet bowl. If the water in the bowl has changed color, you have a failing flapper valve that is constantly leaking water from the tank into the bowl. If this is the case, you need professional Toilet Repair.
It is easy to ignore a slightly dripping bathroom faucet or a showerhead that trickles long after you've turned it off. However, those tiny drops add up to massive waste over a 30-day billing cycle.
A faucet that drips at a rate of just one drip per second will waste over 3,000 gallons of water in a year. If you have multiple dripping fixtures in your home, the waste is compounded exponentially. Usually, a dripping faucet is caused by a worn-out rubber O-ring, a degraded silicone washer, or a cracked ceramic cartridge inside the handle. While replacing these parts seems simple, dealing with corroded fixtures requires professional Faucet Installation & Repair to ensure the leak is permanently stopped.
If your toilets are secure and your faucets are bone dry, you may be dealing with the most dangerous type of leak: a slab leak. A slab leak occurs when the copper or PEX water supply lines buried deep beneath your home's concrete foundation begin to leak.
Slab leaks are incredibly destructive. The escaping water can erode the soil supporting your foundation, causing your home to sink and your concrete slab to crack.
Warning Signs of a Slab Leak:
Slab leaks require immediate attention. Plumbers must use highly specialized acoustic listening devices and thermal imaging cameras to pinpoint the exact location of the leak beneath the concrete before tearing up your flooring to perform a Pipe Repair.
In Colorado, many high water bills occur during the late spring and summer months when homeowners activate their sprinkler systems. Underground irrigation lines are highly susceptible to freezing during the winter, especially if they were not properly blown out.
When you turn the system on in the spring, water pours through the cracked underground PVC lines, flooding your yard instead of watering your grass. Furthermore, a malfunctioning sprinkler timer or a stuck zone valve can cause your system to run for hours without your knowledge. If you notice unusually lush, soggy patches of grass in specific areas of your yard, you likely have an underground irrigation leak.
Your Water Heater is equipped with a safety mechanism called a Temperature and Pressure (T&P) relief valve. If the pressure inside the tank builds to a dangerous level, this valve opens to release water and prevent the tank from exploding.
Occasionally, this valve can become stuck in the open position. When this happens, water continuously drains out of the tank and down the overflow tube. If your overflow tube runs directly into a floor drain, you may never notice that your water heater is constantly dumping hot water down the sewer, driving up both your water bill and your gas/electric heating bill simultaneously.
If you suspect a leak but cannot find it, your home's water meter is your best diagnostic tool.
If your water bill is skyrocketing and your meter is spinning, time is of the essence. You are not only paying for wasted water, but you are also likely suffering hidden structural damage.
Do not let a hidden leak destroy your home or drain your bank account. The highly trained technicians at Plumbing Littleton CO are equipped with state-of-the-art leak detection equipment. We can locate the source of your high water bill with pinpoint accuracy and execute a rapid, permanent repair. Browse our full list of Plumbing Services and call us immediately for emergency dispatch!